Lifespan
by Titan6
Summary: Kenta has a question to ask Karin. He's not normally this direct. Takes place after the end of the Karin anime.


A/N – There is a severe shortage of Karin stories! I thought I would do my part in fixing that with a one shot that begged to be written.

Summary – A conversation between Karin and Kenta concerning her odd nature and how it may affect their life together (obviously this takes place after the end of the series).

Disclaimer – I don't own the Karin series. Never will.

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Lifespan

"Karin?"

"Yes, Kenta–kun?"

"…Am I going to die before you?"

Despite the seventy-degree weather and cloudless sky, it seemed oddly chilly on the roof of their high school.

Karin Maaka turned her head slowly towards Kenta Usui. She wanted to believe that she was just hearing things – entire sentences of things in her boyfriend's voice. She was hoping that when he came into view, his face would be blank, and after a few moments of staring, he would ask if everything was alright. However, that was not the case. He wore a strange mixture of curiosity and sadness on his face, and those eyes that once scared her looked to be searching for an answer.

"That's a good question," she whispered after a brief silence.

The cool breeze that had appeared so suddenly blew, causing her dark violet hair to obscure her features, leaving Kenta to only guess what emotions played across them.

"To be honest, I've been thinking about it for a while. I mean, your grandmother looks no older than you, and she's…"

"Over two hundred," Karin murmured.

"Scary as hell, too. To think that she sucks love along with blood…" Kenta quipped and trailed off.

Another period of silence followed.

"Is that normal for vampires?" Kenta asked, breaking the silence once more.

Even though they were at school, Kenta was fairly sure that they were alone so he felt it was safe enough to talk about Karin's family secret; the fact that living in what would otherwise be an average town was a family of vampires, and he was dating the eldest daughter.

"…I'm afraid so," she sighed. "It depends on a lot of things though, mostly on how often they feed."

"Do you know if it works any differently for blood-makers?" he asked. "I know that as far as vampires go, you're as close to human as they can get. You like sunny days and don't drink a drop of blood when you bite someone. In fact the only thing you seem to have in common with the rest of your family is your fangs. You use them to inject blood into people, or more specifically, me, though. So maybe your lifespan is different."

Kenta threw his head back against the fence that they were leaning against. Despite the serious nature of the subject, he managed to let out a small chuckle. Karin's "reverse vampire" or "unvampire" nature was something he found somewhat amusing, even though she was often embarrassed about it. He might even say he loved it; it made his girlfriend even more unique in his eyes.

Kenta was brought back to the conversation shortly thereafter.

"That's true." She said, now less morose. However, a twinge of red did manage to spread its way across her cheeks.

"You're cute when you blush like that, Karin," Kenta said with a smile. Hopefully he could cheer her up after bringing her down like this.

She pulled herself in closer to him and continued on, ignoring the subject of her blushing.

"We really don't know a lot about vampires like me. I wish I had a better answer for you, Kenta-kun, but…I don't," she said, speaking louder than she had previously. "Why did you choose to ask me now?"

"I was just worried," Kenta admitted.

"You always think so far ahead. Why worry right now?" Karin asked.

"Because I love you."

"I don't think that counts as an answer." She giggled slightly, now suddenly in a better mood. Hearing that from Kenta always did that to her.

"Well you love me, right? You've said it plenty of times."

Karin was not sure where he was going with this, but nonetheless agreed wholeheartedly.

"I hope you won't think I'm being egotistical, but I know I couldn't bear life without you. If you love me too, then I'd think you would feel the same without me. I hated the thought of that. I hated thought of you feeling pain like that for so long. Sure, tragedy can strike for anyone, but with humans they would suffer for only a fraction of the time that you would if your life went on for centuries! That's why I answered the way that I did. I hope that makes sense."

Karin was dumbstruck. Admittedly, this is not a difficult feat to accomplish. However, this time it was well merited. Part of her felt horrible from thinking this much about death when she was only sixteen. Another felt happiness at the deep concern that her boyfriend was showing for her. Yet another felt concern for him, and wished that he would live a little more in the moment and even be a little selfish by wanting something for himself. All of her, though, felt love for Kenta Usui.

Kenta snapped his fingers a few times to see if Karin was even still conscious. To his surprise, in a motion that could either be going in for a kiss or a bite on the neck (either of which he would have been fine with), she jumped towards him, opting for the first choice.

No longer did Kenta Usui find himself sulking about such matters. In those moments, he was just happy to be alive.

Shortly thereafter, the bell signaling the end of lunch sounded, and the couple made their way towards the stairway down. Before they left the roof, however, Karin stopped Kenta. She looked up into his eyes with a resolve that he had never seen before, and she was sure she had never felt.

"Kenta-kun, with all of the tools available to my family, I'm sure something will come up to help us make things better."

"I guess you're right. No more worrying about life or death on either of our parts, okay?" Kenta replied, mirroring her strength.

"You are my life Kenta-kun. Can you avoid worrying about that?" she asked with a grin spread wide across her face.

With that they walked off, hand in hand, determined to measure life in terms of love, rather than years.

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A/N: Whoa! It's done. That took a while. Guess I'm a little out of practice. Anyway, reviews and constructive criticisms are always appreciated. I do realize that they may seem somewhat OOC, but at the end of the series, their interactions were quite different and we didn't have much to go on.


End file.
